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Key Points

  • Sometimes, those closest to us were involved with our addictions. We must be extra careful when choosing people to live with who may still participate in unhealthy habits.
  • There are many sites, groups, and resources available to help you find sober roommates in Houston and elsewhere.
  • The Heights Treatment can provide dual diagnosis substance use and mental health disorder treatment.

Find A Sober Roommate In Houston

Having close friends and roommates who still participate in unhealthy habits can present an additional challenge to your recovery. If they’re not pursuing sobriety, it could be difficult for you to navigate harmful behavior and potential triggers.

Now that you’re sober, you have to reconsider your relationship with those closest to you. It may be necessary to renegotiate how you engage with them in light of your new sober lifestyle.

Your roommate is one person that could have a significant impact on your recovery journey. Depending on your living setup, you could see them fairly frequently. If they aren’t pursuing sobriety, just the sight of them or a single question from them might be enough to trigger a relapse.

If they’ve been drinking, and you can smell alcohol on their breath or clothes, could that trigger a relapse? If they’re high, does that make you want to be high, too?

Fortunately, there are many ways to connect with sober roommates in Houston.

Find A Sober Roommate In Houston

The Heights Treatment Alumni Network

We are The Heights Treatment, an evidence-based dual diagnosis treatment center for drug and mental health disorders.

We have a variety of programs, ranging from high-needs residential support to lower-needs outpatient support. All our programs utilize evidence-based therapies which are grounded in psychology and physiology.

Everybody who graduates from our programs instantly becomes part of our alumni network. And, since we’re located in Houston, if you’re trying to find a sober roommate in Houston, you have a particularly good shot because our alumni are scattered all over the city.

If you’re looking to find a sober roommate, we can confidently put you in contact with another one of our alumni who is looking for a roommate as well. Since you’ve both been through our rigorous program, we know that you both have the same practical, emotional, and social tools to overcome your addiction.

Call us today to ask how you can become part of our alumni community.

Online Search

Ever since the first social media was created in 1997, the internet has facilitated the connecting of strangers worldwide. It took about 26 years, but finally, a social networking site, MySoberRoommate.com, was created specifically for people in recovery who want a sober roommate.

Created by Jesse Sandler, a licensed social worker who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy, MySoberRoommate.com exists to connect people in recovery to others who will be an asset in their journey rather than a hindrance.

Jesse Sandler was frustrated that even decades after the first social media site was created, his clients still did not have a place to search for roommates. Users can create a profile and use the advanced criteria to distinguish themselves from the 10,000+ other members on the site. You can easily search for someone in Houston who also wants a sober roommate.

You can differentiate between whether you have a room to rent out or you’re looking for a room for rent. A cool feature is that you don’t even need to be in recovery yourself to make an account. You could just want a sober roommate if you don’t drink or take drugs and don’t want to put up with the addictive behaviors of a non-sober roommate.

Texas Department of Health and Human Services

There are several different services the state of Texas offers that might be able to help with finding a good place to live with sober roommates:

Permanent Supportive Housing Program

This program helps adults (18+) with a diagnosed mental health condition find safe, affordable housing and learn skills to keep living independently.

Supportive Housing Rental Assistance Program

This program helps people who have applied to Section 8 public housing escape homelessness or avoid becoming homeless with temporary rent subsidies, utility payments, and move-in costs.

Section 811 Rental Assistance Program

For extremely low-income persons with an accompanying disability, this program provides long-term rental assistance if you live in a specific metropolitan area.

Assistance in Transition from Homelessness

Helping people find housing & jobs, get an education, and connect to primary healthcare.

The Health Community Collaborative

A program that helps people who are chronically homeless.

Project Access

It provides people leaving a psychiatric hospital with temporary rent assistance to avoid homelessness.

Sober Living Homes

Sober living homes provide a safe, sober space to heal and recover from an alcohol or substance use addiction. Sober living homes are functional environments without imprisonment. They operate in a space halfway between a rigid inpatient experience and an unaccountable home environment.[1]

Sober living homes have built-in structures that could greatly benefit your recovery journey. Residents are generally expected to pay rent, and as such, you can stay for as long as you need as long as you stay current on your rent. They also have in-house supervisors who monitor the activity of the residents to make sure it stays in line with the code of conduct.

Curfews and random drug tests can be a part of the code of conduct. The best part is that since all members must forego drugs and alcohol during their stay, your roommates must be sober. Rather than having to find a roommate, you could just find a home where you have to be sober to live there.

While there are many sober living homes in Houston, here is one example.

Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous Houston TX

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has helped millions of people since its founding in 1938. It’s a pressure-free and judgment-free zone that brings people on different stages of their recovery journey together to provide practical and emotional support.

AA is a spiritual (but not “religious”) peer-led 12-step group that involves discussion, reading group literature, and listening empathetically to others. It acknowledges the existence of a power more significant than yourself, but it leaves it up to you to define what that is.

Dozens of AA groups meet across Houston, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find one nearby. Once you find one, you can ask members if anyone is looking for a roommate. Because they are pursuing sobriety, they will likely be a good choice for a sober roommate.

Check here for Houston AA groups.

Narcotics Anonymous

Narcotics Anonymous (NA) has been a bulwark against addiction since its founding in 1953.

Much like its sister organization AA, NA has been a welcome respite for people recovering from a substance use disorder. Millions of people have graduated from its spiritual (but not religious) 12-step approach to recovery from addiction.

Group meetings will involve discussion, attentive listening, reading group literature, and recitation. Sharing is entirely voluntary but encouraged.

Like AA, there are dozens of NA groups in Houston. Once you find one, it should be hard to find a member who would appreciate a sober roommate.

Check here for Houston NA groups.

Celebrate Recovery

Celebrate Recovery is a Christian 12-step program invented in 1991 and has been hosted at over 35,000 churches worldwide.

Millions of people have claimed restoration and redemption from their addictions following graduating from this program. It is explicitly religious and uses Biblical justifications for the original 12 steps.

Trained volunteers host the program at local churches, which is great because it gets implemented within a pre-existing community with a shared sense of ethics. Since almost all churches validate the value of abstinence from drugs and alcohol, it would be an easy place to find a sober roommate to help you on your recovery journey.

Check out the group locator to find a hosting church near you.

Need Help Getting Sober? Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment Solutions

Alcohol and drug addictions devastate your life expectancy. One study found people with alcohol use disorder lived 24-28 fewer years than their non-abusing peers, and another study found people abusing opiates lived about 14-15 fewer years than their non-abusing peers.[2][3]

Life is precious, and it’s too valuable to let one more moment be lost to an alcohol or drug addiction. That’s why The Heights Treatment is here to help.

We offer a variety of treatment programs with a dash of Midwestern hospitality to support any level of needs you may have. Our professional team members are licensed to provide evidence-based therapies that are grounded in the physiology and psychology of addiction.

You can expect consistent, confidential, and supportive care and attention every step of the way. Effective healing is encouraged by a supportive community, which starts with our staff but also includes other clients who will be participating in group treatments with you.

Contact us today to see how we can help.

Choose a Sober Life Today

Alcohol and drug addictions are serious. If you’re struggling with substances, seek treatment immediately. Don’t wait. Who your roommate is can have a significant effect on the success of your sobriety journey.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and the journey to sobriety begins with a single choice. Continue making good choices by choosing a sober roommate. Also, see these additional resources on where to find zero-proof drinks in Houston.

Frequently Asked Questions

There is no such thing as “free sober living,” but there are various Texas government programs that could subsidize the rent of an apartment or house you share with a sober roommate.

Everywhere has an associated cost of living, but sometimes you could get admitted to a program where the city or state government steps between you and the landlord to pay part or even all of your rent.

Texas programs include the Permanent Supportive Housing Program, the Supportive Housing Rental Assistance Program, and Project Access.

A sober lifestyle is where you say “no” to drugs and alcohol so that you can say “yes” to living your fullest life imaginable.

There are still plenty of fun things to do in Houston, even when you aren’t drinking. You might be so used to drinking to have fun you’ve forgotten alcohol was just a companion to the fun rather than the entirety of the fun. Oftentimes, while it may have started as “fun,” drinking can cause adverse health effects that lower your quality of life.

A sober lifestyle takes back control of your life from alcohol and drugs.

Before you sign any kind of lease with a potential roommate, meet them in person first. What do they smell like? Do they look presentable?

Treat it like an interview, and ask them questions about their history with alcohol and drugs. If they have abused them in the past, are they abusing them now?

Communicate what your boundaries are and what your addiction triggers are. Would they be able to cohabit in a house or apartment with you without setting off one of your triggers?

Do they seem like they understand the value of maintaining your sobriety, or are they just trying to find a cheap place to live?

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[1] Reis, A. D., & Laranjeira, R. (2008, December). Halfway houses for alcohol dependents: From theoretical bases to implications for the organization of facilities. Clinics (Sao Paulo, Brazil). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2664286/

[2] Westman, J., Wahlbeck, K., Laursen, T. M., Gissler, M., Nordentoft, M., Hällgren, J., Arffman, M., & Ösby, U. (2015, April). Mortality and life expectancy of people with alcohol use disorder in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4402015/

[3] Lewer, D., Jones, N., Hickman, M., Nielsen, S., & Degenhardt, L. (n.d.). Life expectancy of people who are dependent on opioids: A cohort study in New South Wales, Australia. Journal of psychiatric research. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32905957/

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